Andrew Marvell (1621-1678): from A Poem upon the Death of O.[liver] C.[Cromwell", 1658, in Miscellaneous Poems, 1681

Lightning strikes at the heart of the massive tornado that ripped through Tuscaloosa and continued on to Birmingham, Alabama: photo by Saxon McClamma, 27 April 2011

Tuscaloosa Tornado as seen from UAB campus: photo by Saxon McClamma, 27 April 2011

A large tornado sweeps through Limestone County, south of Athens, Alabama, 27 April 2011: photo by Gary Cosby Jr./The Decatur Daily/AP

Overnight tornadoes left part of Pratt City, Alabama in ruins, 28 April 2011: photo by Marvin Gentry/Reuters

Concrete steps lead to nothing after a tornado demolished a mobile home in Preston, Mississippi, 27 April 2011; the home and one next to it were blown about 100 feet away into a cow pasture; three related women died at the site: photo by Rogelio V. Solis/AP

To be pushed by the righteous anger of a justifiably outraged Nature into History is to be pushed out of the Garden and over the Falls.

And while this was happening, two billion people round the globe were watching celebrities with funny hats perform in the media theatre aka hallowed cathedral of another dead Empire. Watching on Al Jazeera as the royal darlings smirked their way through the vows to cherish till death do them part in global closeup, my attention wandered to thoughts of stars pulsating and whirling like Van Gogh pinwheels and falling in lightning bolts and swarms of great grey downspouts and funnel chutes through the troubled atmosphere over Alabama.

And too I worried the potted ferns had been parked atop the graves in the Poets' Corner.

"...many of Marvell's contemporaries believed deeply that the world was drawing to an end."

Thanks for the stark contrast between the false and the real, the connection is completed for me. While reading the Marvell poems and some of the commentary to the posts, I kept coming back to the thought of how modern, how contemporary his words and images and tone.

That is the connection I kept feeling and this post completes it - we feel today very much as he felt then and, yes, there is that overwhelming feeling that we are nearing the end now.

The signs portend ... whether literally or metaphorically, it really is the same.